The life of a Cob. Glamorous. Killer salary. Dynamic benefits, don't let CDR-M bullshit you. Yet, we put ourselves through sheer hell at times linking to what is going on in our world.

My maternal great grandparents came here not knowing English. There was no running water, no indoor plumbing, no electricity, no automobiles. Yet, they learned the English language and became successful farmers. We as a nation have become fat, lazy and overly narcissistic.

In our occasional series on this nontraditional industry, Quartz interviewed a professional cuddler named Heather, who is based in Seattle, Washington. Heather has spent more than a year meeting with a 75-year-old client for weekly, three-hour sessions.

Don't want to read the story, there is a video for you. You're welcome. :)

Amanda Mercer had been contemplating a nose job for years, but the idea of shelling out around $15,000 — and undergoing anaesthesia — kept the 20-year-old from booking an appointment. Still, she was bothered by the way she looked in pictures her friends would post online.

“I’m always like, ‘No, don’t get my side! It has to be head-on!,’ ” says the college student, who lives in Bay Shore, LI.

So when she heard of nonsurgical rhinoplasty, in which fillers are injected to shape a nose, she jumped at the chance to “fix” her face without going under the knife.

New research from a team at MIT indicates symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affecting patient’s memories may be reversible. AD causes memory loss by setting up genetic “blockades” formed when the enzyme HCAC2 condenses the genes of the brain responsible for memory. Eventually, those genes become useless; unexpressed, the genes are unable to cause the formation of new memories or retrieval of existing ones.

What’s in a name? For Kotex, the first-ever brand of sanitary napkins to hit the U.S., everything.
The disposable sanitary napkin was a high-tech invention (inspired, incidentally, by military products) that changed the way women dealt with menstruation. It also helped to create modern perceptions of how menstruation should be managed through its advertising, which was both remarkably explicit for its time but also strictly adhered to emerging stereotypes about
the “modern” woman of the 1920s should aspire to. Kotex sanitary napkins paved the way for the wide variety of feminine hygiene products on the market today by finding an answer to the crucial question: How to market a product whose function can’t be openly discussed? “Kotex was such a departure because there just wasn’t a product” previously, says communications scholar Roseann Mandziuk.

In just over a week on August 21st, the US will experience its first total solar eclipse in nearly 40 years. Seeing as staring at the sun, even while it is obscured by the moon, for any length of time can be extremely hazardous up to and including the point of severe eye damage or blindness, it’s not a suggestion to buy eclipse glasses that meet minimum safety standards. It’s pretty much mandatory.

All this is why news Amazon has detected vendors selling “counterfeit or unsafe versions” of the glasses, per the Verge, is more than a little discomforting. According to an Amazon safety notification obtained by the Verge, the e-commerce giant has removed the pages for products it could not verify met minimum standards including “MASCOTKING Solar Eclipse Glasses 2017 - CE and ISO Certified Safe Shades for Direct Sun Viewing — Eye Protection.” It is also offering refunds to customers who have purchased those products.

We aren't that far away from the silly season, Campaign 2018. Some of the silly season should be interesting. Left to eat left.

Sen. Claire McCaskill already was anticipating a tough fight from Republicans as she seeks a third term, but her path got even trickier this month when she found out she now faces a challenge from her left as well.
Ms. McCaskill is perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate heading into next year, where she will try to defend her seat in Missouri, a state that’s tilted heavily toward Republicans in recent years.

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The ONT Musical Interlude

Probably one of the best guitarists you never heard of:

August 14, 1988, Guitarist Roy Buchanan died after hanging himself with his own shirt in Fairfax County Adult Detention Center having been arrested for drunkenness. Buchanan released over 15 solo albums; Jeff Beck dedicated the song 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers' to Buchanan in 1975 on his Blow by Blow album. via thisdayinmusic.com

I recommend the "Loading Zone" LP.

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August 14, 1941, Born on this day, David Crosby, The Byrds, Crosby Stills Nash & Young. (1969 UK No.17 single 'Marrakesh Express', 1970 US No.11 single 'Woodstock' 1970 US No.1 album 'Deja Vu', 1975 US No. 6 solo album 'Wind On The Water'). via thisdayinmusic.com

Recently, The Independent (UK) published a sympathetic portrayal of the ISIS wives now living in the “Little Britain of Raqqa.” The BBC joined in with its own story, which highlighted the voices of other women who had joined ISIS. Over the sound of mournful background music, an earnest BBC reporter asked the women questions about why they had gone with their husbands to ISIS territory—although a more honest questioner would have asked why these women fled their cushy Western lives to join a death cult with a murderous ideology that was killing people because of their religion and sexuality. Other media outlets have published similarly sympathetic stories, such as one about an affluent German girl who joined ISIS but now complains, “I just want to go home.”

Burns says burglars are targeting properties near his Moo Nay Farms in Cooks Brook, Nova Scotia, which has been robbed twice in as many months. Most recently, they stole $1,000 worth of tools, but in June they took $5,000 worth of animals – including six pigs and 40 chickens.

He took to Facebook on August 2 to offer two rewards. If anyone comes to him with a tip that leads to the recovery of his tools, he will give that person “five pounds of my best Berkshire bacon” – which, he has said, “is one of the most beloved products from our farm.” (Insert Jim Gaffigan joke here.)

That is a lot of bacon and fried chicken to move without being noticed.

California could be even closer to a major natural disaster than ever before. With eight active volcanoes and a high state population, the United States Geological Survey says that the Golden State is in desperate need of very close monitoring.

But sometimes they show their true intentions. Thus, when UCSF oncologists refused to assist a cancer patient’s suicide, the woman died of her disease. Now, her family is suing–using the same attorney (Kathryn Tucker) who tried (unsuccessfully) to obtain an assisted suicide Roe v Wade in 1997 and has brought other pro-assisted sucide cases around the country. From the San Francisco Chronicle story: Judy Dale died of cancer in her San Francisco home in September, in agony, after being denied the pain-relieving medication she might have received under the state’s aid-in-dying law that had taken effect three months earlier.

Meteorologist Joe Bastardi explains: “Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize based on warnings of future events — the same future events that have not happened. The fact is that global temperatures from 2006-2007 while Gore was basking in the glory of his apocalypse-driven fame were warmer than they are now, and we are still falling off the Super El Niño peak. Additionally, much of the time in-between was lower than what it was in the run-up to ‘An Inconvenient Truth.'” Bastardi added: “Fact: Without monkeying around and ‘finding’ warming, temps have changed very little during 20 year AGW hysteria period.”